tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-65857756165838452472018-02-14T09:07:17.601-05:00Fare Free Ontariofpteditorsnoreply@blogger.comBlogger187125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6585775616583845247.post-78410713035390843342017-10-20T02:39:00.001-04:002017-10-20T02:39:09.087-04:00The Case for Free Public Transit<a href="https://torontoist.com/2017/10/case-free-public-transit/">torontoist </a>: "Many cities already have some degree of free transit. Merced County in California offers free transit every August, and their ridership jumps by over 30 per cent. Columbus, Ohio, did a pilot study over the last two years, providing free bus passes to workers at four companies, and saw the share of workers using buses double.<br /><br />The increased economic participation pays dividends, as do the positive environmental and health impacts from fewer cars."fpteditorsnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6585775616583845247.post-8448986136653419482017-07-16T20:34:00.001-04:002017-07-16T20:34:58.964-04:00Humans depend on agriculture which depends on predictable weather<a href="http://globalnews.ca/news/3597578/weather-pushes-ontario-farmers-to-brink-of-disaster/">Peterborough | Globalnews.ca</a>: "Local farmers in the Kawarthas say they are in dire circumstances, which will become more critical if the weather fails to bring the sunshine and warm temperatures.<br /><br />Provincial minister of agriculture, food and rural affairs Jeff Leal visited some local farms Thursday to talk to growers about the impact of the cool, rainy spring and summer on local crops."fpteditorsnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6585775616583845247.post-54641471025358662422017-05-07T00:44:00.001-04:002017-05-07T00:44:50.541-04:00Free Transit for Low Income Individuals - Community Forum in Kitchener, ON 3 Jun 2017<a href="https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/free-transit-for-low-income-individuals-community-forum-registration-33236845299?ref=estw">Eventbrite</a>: "The Alliance Against Poverty (AAP) has organized a Community Forum on Free Transit to develop a local campaign to make public transit free for everyone in Waterloo Region who lives in poverty. We would really like you to participate in our Forum.<br />The Forum will occur on Saturday, June 3rd from 2 to 4 pm in the fully-accessible downstairs hall of Historic St. Paul’s Lutheran Church. This church is located in downtown Kitchener at the corner of 137 Queen St. S. and Church St., just one block away from the Charles St. bus terminal. You enter the hall from Church St. via the large doors. The accessibility entrance is at the rear of the church off the parking lot, entering by the office door to the elevator. Free parking is available in the rear lot."fpteditorsnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6585775616583845247.post-82067385967581229372017-04-21T15:22:00.001-04:002017-04-21T15:22:02.575-04:00Transit cops or free transit?<a href="http://rankandfile.ca/2017/04/20/transit-cops-or-free-transit/">rankandfile.ca</a>: "Fare accounting costs, ticket and pass production costs, and various other costs associated with fares could be eliminated. Immensely expensive transit pass programs can be buried. Even with tokens and tickets eliminated, the Presto card system in Ottawa and the Greater Toronto Area has been enormously expensive. While transit users will save a bit&nbsp;on fares with Presto, the province’s auditor general says hundreds of millions have been blown on its installation.<br /><br />All these resources could be freed up and focused on better transit services, more jobs, and better infrastructure. Transit workers can be redirected to other parts of the service, such as attendants at major transit stations, retrained for operating, maintenance and other services."fpteditorsnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6585775616583845247.post-10963392647720806412017-03-27T16:56:00.001-04:002017-03-27T16:56:31.761-04:00EDITORIAL: It's time to stop the Scarborough Subway<a href="http://spacing.ca/toronto/2017/03/23/editorial-time-stop-scarborough-subway/">Spacing Toronto </a>: "Boosters, beginning with but not limited to Mayor John Tory, claim that what the City is doing is building transit, finally. But by any reasonable review of the facts, the SSE is really about NOT building rapid transit, and indeed making Toronto’s existing transit system even less functional than it currently is.<br />It is a move backwards, not a move forwards."fpteditorsnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6585775616583845247.post-16893174531021032402017-03-19T23:07:00.001-04:002017-03-19T23:07:55.898-04:00Success of free passes for youth in Kingston<a href="http://www.kingstonregion.com/opinion-story/7195280-public-transit-a-modern-necessity/">Public transit: A modern necessity</a>: "Student passes work seven days a week, allowing students to find work; youth who may never have had that option before. The passes are valid from September to September, so students may use them for months after graduating. Community groups and public educators in Kingston have told me that this has been the best anti-poverty initiative for youth that the city has ever undertaken.&nbsp;"fpteditorsnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6585775616583845247.post-65273445663505462852017-01-08T23:39:00.000-05:002017-01-08T23:39:04.750-05:00Cars bring 4% of shoppers, get 30% of space<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xHh-4_hUkrI/WHMTtH4qh-I/AAAAAAAAGh0/cnTYwvwk6S4S8G9jGRV00pz-pL3S0csYACLcB/s1600/IMG_6921.jpg.650x0_q70_crop-smart.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="211" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xHh-4_hUkrI/WHMTtH4qh-I/AAAAAAAAGh0/cnTYwvwk6S4S8G9jGRV00pz-pL3S0csYACLcB/s320/IMG_6921.jpg.650x0_q70_crop-smart.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><a href="http://www.treehugger.com/urban-design/taking-back-streets-most-businesses-urban-streets-make-their-money-pedestrians-and-cyclists.html">TreeHugger</a>: "But what I find most interesting is the breakdown of that 72 percent- 53 percent of the visitors come on foot, and they do get their own dedicated space, but it is shared with the retailers who fill it with stuff, trees, newspaper boxes, parking meters. When you look at what is left for walking, it is almost nothing, barely enough for people to get by each other.<br />19 percent come by bike, and they get worse than nothing, they have to ride down a thin strip between the parked cars and the streetcar tracks, an absolute death zone where a poorly parked car or truck or a door opening forces cyclists into the tracks.<br /><br />Only 4 percent of the people hitting the street come there by car, yet they get to store their metal boxes on close to 30 percent of the road allowance."</div>fpteditorsnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6585775616583845247.post-36733111422148262922016-11-30T12:56:00.002-05:002016-11-30T12:56:41.038-05:00Car driving commuters are minority in Toronto<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">.<a href="https://twitter.com/strobelsun">@strobelsun</a> Commuters who drive are, by far, the minority in Toronto. Time for drivers to make way for prevailing modes. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TOpoli?src=hash">#TOpoli</a> <a href="https://t.co/gFBz6k0ahJ">pic.twitter.com/gFBz6k0ahJ</a></p>&mdash; Martyn Schmoll (@martynschmoll) <a href="https://twitter.com/martynschmoll/status/803462965143797760">November 29, 2016</a></blockquote><script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>fpteditorsnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6585775616583845247.post-21710695259220424292016-11-10T22:32:00.001-05:002016-11-10T22:32:09.904-05:00#dumbtrack Toronto still ruled by oil trolls, sabotaging sensible #publictransit<a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2015/11/06/toronto-now-the-last-bastion-of-old-style-conservatism-hume.html">Toronto now the last bastion of old-style conservatism: Hume | Toronto Star</a>: "The Toronto the car built is giving way to another city, one that’s dense, highrise and compact. It is a city where bicycles make as much sense as cars, and in which pedestrians are demanding freedom of the streets.<br /><br />It is no longer a city defined by ease of driving, but quality of life. As Toronto adopts contemporary values, it’s clear the old guard isn’t up to the task."fpteditorsnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6585775616583845247.post-20991983665309414892016-07-16T00:41:00.001-04:002016-07-16T00:41:25.498-04:00Toronto - Banks and oil companies want subways to create debt and get people out of the way of cars<a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/city_hall/2016/07/13/city-council-debates-scarborough-subway-extension.html">Toronto Star</a>: "City council has endorsed moving ahead with a one-stop subway extension in Scarborough, rejecting a push to revive a seven-stop LRT as part of a light-rail network that could serve more residents for less money.<br /><br />The vote Wednesday was a conclusive win for Mayor John Tory, who has adamantly backed the need for subway connection to the Scarborough Town Centre he promised to build during the election. It also effectively killed the original seven-stop LRT that would have been fully funded by the province."fpteditorsnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6585775616583845247.post-78361806709237101832016-06-09T17:45:00.001-04:002016-06-09T17:45:53.782-04:00Cars subsidized by taxpayers in Toronto<a href="https://www.thestar.com/opinion/commentary/2016/06/09/can-toronto-still-afford-50-per-day-parking.html">Toronto Star </a>: "Parking at 50¢ a shot is a great deal for individual beneficiaries but not so great for the city as it struggles to fund key programs and activities. When the city significantly under-prices parking it also encourages car use at the expense of objectives, such as promoting transit, improving physical fitness from walking and cycling, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change.<br /><br />Some motorists will object to any proposal to increase the cost of driving, often asserting they already overpay for roads. While there’s no doubt motorists pay dearly to drive via car payments, insurance, and fuel this hardly justifies subsidizing (and thus hiding) the true cost of driving.<br /><br />The assertion that motorists overpay for local roads is almost certainly false. For instance, a study, entitled “Whose Roads” by Canada’s Victoria Transport Policy Institute found cyclists and pedestrians — not motorists — overpay for local roads through general taxes. Anecdotally, even though I don’t own a car I pay as much in property taxes, which “fund most of the operating costs of roads,” according to the Residential and Civil Construction Alliance of Ontario, as my neighbours who own two and three cars."fpteditorsnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6585775616583845247.post-67095314430446837872016-05-25T12:38:00.001-04:002016-05-25T12:38:12.656-04:00There is a "war on cars," but the cars are winning<blockquote class="tr_bq"><a href="http://www.treehugger.com/walking/blaming-victim-taken-new-extremes-toronto-tragic-accident.html">TreeHugger</a>: "When Constable Remo Romano hit her with his F150 pickup truck he was going 115 (71MPH) in a 60 km/hr (37 MPH) zone. According to one article, her body was thrown 80 meters."</blockquote>The "system" (auto-sprawl) is not blamed because too many powerful people are profiting from it. And the individuals can't go to jail -- the labor force would be unstable. So the fault is placed on the victim.<br /><br /><br /><br />Cars are literally killing us. There is a mild sort of fight back, you know, "complete streets" and such. What we need is a real fight back.<br /><br /><br /><br />It is time to admit the autosprawl system does not work. How many more will die before you join the campaign for fare-free buses?<br /><br /><br /><br />Free public transit will break the critical mass of the private auto. Subsidies will then be seen as a burden, not a necessity.fpteditorsnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6585775616583845247.post-60848851336953795662016-05-21T17:45:00.001-04:002016-05-21T17:45:21.488-04:00Ontario plans massive subsidy for cars disguised as "climate" plan<a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/ontario-to-spend-7-billion-in-sweeping-climate-change-plan/article30029081/">The Globe and Mail</a>: "$285-million for electric vehicle incentives. These include a rebate of up to $14,000 for every electric vehicle purchased; up to $1,000 to install home charging; taking the provincial portion of the HST off electric vehicle sales; an extra subsidy program for low– and moderate-income households to get older cars off the road and replace them with electric; and free overnight electricity for charging electric vehicles. The province will also build more charging stations at government buildings, including LCBO outlets, and consider making electrical vehicle plug-ins mandatory on all new buildings. The plan sets targets of expanding electric vehicle sales to 5 per cent of all vehicles sold by 2020, up to 12 per cent by 2025, and aiming to get an electric or hybrid vehicle in every multivehicle driveway by 2024, a total of about 1.7 million cars."fpteditorsnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6585775616583845247.post-20328373939108359572016-04-25T15:25:00.002-04:002016-04-25T15:25:22.552-04:00Ottawa transit fares help keep more cars on the road, while hurting poor people<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Unlike numerous other Ontario cities, Ottawa does not have a low-income pass <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/OttawaInsights?src=hash">#OttawaInsights</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ottpoli?src=hash">#ottpoli</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ottcity?src=hash">#ottcity</a> <a href="https://t.co/o60sZLt0Ts">pic.twitter.com/o60sZLt0Ts</a></p>&mdash; HealthyTransport (@HealthTransport) <a href="https://twitter.com/HealthTransport/status/724675343903297536">April 25, 2016</a></blockquote><script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>fpteditorsnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6585775616583845247.post-30124989433769080552016-03-16T04:13:00.001-04:002016-03-16T04:14:17.972-04:00Road tolls -- more bureaucracy -- more contention -- more unintended consequences. Make buses fare-free to solve congestion.<img alt="FILE--Traffic jams the Gardiner Expressway in downtown Toronto in this April 8, 2000 photo." height="214" src="http://www.metronews.ca/content/dam/thestar/uploads/2016/3/15/gardiner.jpg.size.xxlarge.promo.jpg" width="320" /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.metronews.ca/news/toronto/2016/03/15/who-should-pay-road-tolls-in-toronto.html">Metro News</a>: "Martin Collier, founder of Transport Futures, warned against only charging non-residents. One of the goals of road pricing is to encourage alternate transportation, he said, and giving Torontonians a free ride could do the opposite.<br />“It may even induce people inside Toronto to not take transit because traffic on those roads will decrease as people from Whitby and Oshawa choose other routes,” he said."fpteditorsnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6585775616583845247.post-57901552789254517652015-11-20T07:56:00.001-05:002015-11-20T07:56:07.388-05:00Toronto suffers from decades of #publictransit neglect<a href="http://www.ttcriders.ca/memo-to-all-three-levels-of-government/">TTCriders.ca</a>: "The TTC needs to be funded, maintained, and expanded. &nbsp;For decades, various levels of government have let down our beleaguered transit system. &nbsp;Canada remains the only G7 country without any national transit strategy. &nbsp;The Progressive Conservatives of the 1990s cut provincial operating funding that has still not been restored by the current governing Liberals. &nbsp;City Council slashed bus routes, cancelled LRT lines, and reduced service to levels it is only now able to restore. &nbsp;Even now, fares are set to increase again.<br /><br />The 90s and 00s were bleak times for the TTC, but there have been signs of improvement over the past few years. &nbsp;The Eglinton-Crosstown and Finch LRTs will be welcomed, while City Council has restored the service cuts of the previous administration. &nbsp;GO RER, if implemented wisely, can do wonders for regional commutes. UPX, though underused and overpriced, can easily be made into a useful service if re-imagined as a true public transit line. These are encouraging signs."fpteditorsnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6585775616583845247.post-16913652126376186532015-02-23T05:13:00.001-05:002015-02-23T05:13:46.416-05:00Real issue isn’t best transit; it’s who owns the street<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-JzwG2ykV_yE/VOr9GLoot6I/AAAAAAAAFhA/lsIYEq6rlTo/s1600/Capture.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-JzwG2ykV_yE/VOr9GLoot6I/AAAAAAAAFhA/lsIYEq6rlTo/s1600/Capture.JPG" height="207" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Bogota BRT</div><a href="http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/transportation/2015/02/22/real-issue-isnt-best-transit-its-who-owns-the-street-hume.html">Toronto Star </a>: "Enrique Penalosa, former mayor of Bogota, Colombia, sees the bus not just as a way to move large numbers of people, but as nothing less than an instrument of democracy. His argument is simple: a bus with, say, 30 passengers is entitled to 30 times as much road space as a car with a single occupant. Hard to disagree with that.<br />In Toronto, however, the subtext to the transit debate is more a sense of entitlement than the desire for mobility. It’s one thing to assert that we have a right to accessibility, another to insist we “deserve” a subway."<br /><br /><br /><br /><a href="http://newsroom.scania.com/en-group/2013/07/02/choose-the-bus-for-the-environment/">photo credit</a>fpteditorsnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6585775616583845247.post-74890709299905772272015-02-19T15:46:00.001-05:002015-02-19T15:46:02.266-05:00Free student transit a good idea for Brampton<iframe width="440" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/5dmkr9WW74I?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>fpteditorsnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6585775616583845247.post-33358474893298482242015-02-10T17:08:00.002-05:002015-02-10T17:08:55.714-05:00CTV Toronto: Rough ride for John Tory<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://toronto.ctvnews.ca/video?clipId=547928&amp;playlistId=1.2228408&amp;binId=1.815892&amp;playlistPageNum=1&amp;binPageNum=1"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-lKh1GBn0SBU/VNqA_z_ajZI/AAAAAAAAFfc/walSvLPLElU/s1600/Capture.JPG" height="221" width="320" /></a></div><a href="http://toronto.ctvnews.ca/video?clipId=547928&amp;playlistId=1.2228408&amp;binId=1.815892&amp;playlistPageNum=1&amp;binPageNum=1">CTV</a>: "Rowdy reception: John Tory meets with TTC workers"<br /><br /><br /><br /><a href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/pengoopmcjnbflcjbmoeodbmoflcgjlk" style="font-size: 13px;">'via Blog this'</a></div>fpteditorsnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6585775616583845247.post-9461771346437437502014-11-17T19:44:00.003-05:002014-11-17T19:44:41.936-05:00ATU report on improving Toronto #publictransit<iframe width="440" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/akYkZor_33I?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>fpteditorsnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6585775616583845247.post-30744129240695175052014-10-24T01:56:00.002-04:002014-10-24T01:56:28.557-04:00Are pro-transit candidates telling the truth? Or are they just pandering? #topoli #cdnpoli<div id="fb-root"></div> <script>(function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js#xfbml=1"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); }(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));</script><div class="fb-post" data-href="https://www.facebook.com/TTCriders/posts/10152832804666103" data-width="466"><div class="fb-xfbml-parse-ignore"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/TTCriders/posts/10152832804666103">Post</a> by <a href="https://www.facebook.com/TTCriders">TTCriders.ca</a>.</div></div>fpteditorsnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6585775616583845247.post-84702982998876914892014-10-13T13:36:00.004-04:002014-10-13T13:36:45.701-04:00Campaign for #freetransit in Toronto<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>The fight for fare-free <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/public?src=hash">#public</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/transit?src=hash">#transit</a> in Toronto, Canada: <a href="http://t.co/pj3sNlttjy">http://t.co/pj3sNlttjy</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/video?src=hash">#video</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/FreePublicTrans">@FreePublicTrans</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/ElectLaxer">@ElectLaxer</a></p>&mdash; Greg Fowler (@fowgre) <a href="https://twitter.com/fowgre/status/521687974904225792">October 13, 2014</a></blockquote><script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>fpteditorsnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6585775616583845247.post-26499227995243681622014-07-24T16:00:00.002-04:002014-07-24T16:00:55.006-04:00Hamilton - free public transit for seniors could reduce carbon emission by 1M tonnes<a href="http://www.thespec.com/opinion-story/4643432-free-public-transit-for-seniors-/">the spec</a>: "Seniors using free transit for one in 10 of their journeys might reduce car use in Ontario by a whopping 2.25 billion miles per year, reducing carbon emissions by almost one million tonnes. Every senior couple that free transit allows to take one car off the road reduces annual CO2 emissions by around 3.5 tonnes. Congestion on local roads and highways might be reduced by 1.5 per cent, further reducing emissions and enabling working people, business transport and goods to move more efficiently, improving productivity, and supporting the vibrant business environment our province strives to encourage.<br /><br />Studies indicate that as we age our cognitive abilities and response times deteriorate resulting in higher levels of injuries, claims and consequent concerns for senior drivers, their families and traffic authorities. This is an emotionally charged subject we are loath to address for fear of offending parents or potential voters. Free transit for seniors would alleviate that by providing a dignified and affordable alternative to driving."fpteditorsnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6585775616583845247.post-8570508796520594002014-06-14T16:39:00.001-04:002014-06-14T16:39:36.283-04:00Ontario - people want more #publictransit<a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/majority-gives-liberals-freer-hand-with-public-transit/article19151353/">The Globe and Mail</a>: "But with a new mandate and the freedom to manoeuvre that comes from a strengthened position in the legislature, the Liberals will be able to push ahead with their ambitious transportation plan.<br /><br />“The people of Ontario … want us to get on with building the transit and transportation infrastructure that we know we need,” Ms. Wynne said during her triumphant victory speech late Thursday evening."fpteditorsnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6585775616583845247.post-49352690404997463822014-06-07T09:19:00.001-04:002014-06-07T09:19:36.999-04:00We must expand public transportation system<a href="http://www.guelphmercury.com/opinion-story/4562630-we-must-expand-public-transportation-system/">guelphmercury opinion </a>: "Expanded public transportation is essential for social, safety and environmental reasons. Our political leaders must deal with it, and not support more or wider highways.<br /><br />It is common knowledge that petroleum supplies are unsustainable; therefore our present system is unsustainable.<br /><br />Changes are in order — now.<br /><br /><br />Helen Hansen<br /><br />Guelph"fpteditorsnoreply@blogger.com0